Wilpons Turn To Speak

So there was a lot that was said during the press conference with Fred and Jeff Wilpon. A lot of conflicting stories, a shocker and some stupid reporters. This presser was mostly repetitive. If you did not watch it, be grateful. I lost nearly an hour of my life listening to repetitions.

I will say that you could see how tired, upset and hurt the elder Wilpon was. I actually felt a little sorry for him. I seem to be feeling sorry for a lot of people today. He knows what needs to be done and I think he will certainly see to it that it happens.

On to the presser:

Both made statements to start off. However, Fred Wilpon’s stood out the most.

We’ve had [some] good years but too many bad years. I love the New York Mets. I love this franchise. They are a part of our family. As CEO of this team, I have the last word… The buck stops here. So I take the responsibility [for what happens on the field]. The last four years have been the most frustrating and disappointing.

Regarding Omar Minaya, Wilpon Sr. said:

We encourage Minaya to take some time off and think about what his future is going to be. He is going to do that. He can stay with the organization. The new GM will have to make the decision for him to stay.

Regarding the new GM, Jeff stated:

We will ask permission to speak to new GM candidates and hire someone as soon as we believe is feasible. We are considering up and comers and those with long-term experience. We are going outside the organization so we can get some new ideas and energize our team and fan base.

There is no internal candidate right now. So we will be looking outside of the organization.

The old GM had [autonomy]. (In other words, he probably will as well.)

(Type of GM) More experienced GMs, some who have lost their jobs and might get a second chance. Even some young guys. [We will look at] what kind of culture they want to bring in.

Why did Fred Wilpon feel so bad, disappointed:

Because the expectations were high. We thought we were on the right track. We came close….were close but we couldn’t close. We invested a lot fo time and energy and passion and money and we did not get to where we wanted to get to. We made inveestment that did not prove to be great investments.

Clearing up perceptions on ownership, it was said they would have taken advisement on dumping players. The claim it was never brought to their attention. Wilpon continued with:

Play the players who are going to win that particular day. They were not told not to play them. They were told to play the player to win that particular day.

Minaya has never been told that he was not told who to sign or who not to sign. This is a very good jo. People want to be teh GM and the Manager. (Really? That was not my perception. lol)

We are not capable of picking baseball players. That has been the perception. It is an incorrect perception.

Decisions are made between [Fred, Jeff and Katz]. Jeff’s responsibilities are not to pick baseball players. Jeff’s responsibility is to execute it…in running this entire business.

The attention was brought about more firings. Jeff answered:

John Ricco and everyone else will know their fates tomorrow.

Could someone come in and say they hate everyhing and want:

Jeff: We would listen to that plan and see that that guy gets the job.

Wilpon Sr.: We would not want someone to make that decision the first day. But he has to make an assessment.

Clearing it up regarding players:

Jeff: We can’t just dump all of that salary out int shtreet. He has to come up with interesting ways to do that.

On the topic of players, it was asked about getting rid of David Wright:

You’d have to listen. Let me be clear – David Wright is part of the long-term plan if I have anything to say about it.

Back to asking about finances which I am a little tired of hearing about because Marty Noble seems to think SNY viewership is down. Wilpon Sr. seemed perturbed by this:

SNY is reaching a record viewership.

The Madoff issue…the money smarts. There is no question. You don’t like to lose money that was stolen from you. But the betrayal is something I will never ever forget. I will go to my grave remembering that. That was a total betrayal of us. We were investors for something like 25 yers. But it was only one part of our busisness. But that’s not part of the business that is running the [mets].

Short-term goal for 2011:

Jeff: New GM, new manager then to win games.

There will be an announcement regarding ticket sales. What will get Mets fans to buy tickets again?:

Jeff: The change has to be the drive.

Other interesting quotes:

Jeff: Those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it. Of course there will be changes in how we do everything.

Jeff: We’re frustrated and upset like our fans.

Wilpon, Sr.: Our job is too put people in a position to succeed. We thought were giving them resources to succeed. So we have to take on that responsibility. If the people you put in did not succeed, we did not do what we wanted to do. So we have to take on that responsibility.

Wilpon, Sr.’s message to fans:

We’ll work as hard as anybody can work. We’ll hire the best person or people we can possibly find.

Side note

After the presser, Jeff Wilpon spoke with Kevin Burkhardt and stated that HoJo will have a job with the organization.

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8 Comments

once again for the Mets and thier fans, a tough year[though, i would argue it was their best season in 4 years] but its was a fantastic year for Tanya Mercado ! 2 years now i have been reading her articles, and she rivals any sportswriter in this town ! certainly her writing ability, and her baseball knowledge is far better than those “professionals” , so i read every single article of hers, and i just want to say THANK YOU TANYA, please keep up the great work !

Wow. Thank you David. I’m speechless. Those are high praises. That means so much to me. Thank you for being so loyal all of these years. I really appreciate it. Hope I can continue. Here’s to another two years. 🙂

I want to talk about the Autonomy issue. I think it is clear now after hearing the WIlpons what the problem is and where this Autonomy thing started.

Wilpons stated that Omar was never denied any request. Which you COULD define as autonomy but truth is it is more of a TRUSTED relationship than an autonomous one.

Autonomy would be Minaya does what he wants and then tells management what he did, why he did it and then it would be up to them to either fire him for doing something they didn’t like or based on how that decision worked out.

Seems to me that what was actually happening was that Omar would have a decision that had to be brought before the “Council” and the council would rubber stamp it before Omar could move forward.

That is not Autonomy and can lead to the idea on other clubs that Omar was not running the show! Any deal he would negotiate had to get that rubber stamp which delays the deal and in some cases could leave to a deal getting nixed because someone WITH authority to make snap decisions could seal it without delay! I don’t know of any examples of where this may have happened but I sure we wouldn’t have heard about them if they did! But it could explain why the league has the impression that Minaya was not in control of the team!

The WIlpons need to hire someone who can make the call without their approval and if that person makes too many deals they don’t like the way they should deal with it is by firing the guy! If you trust the guy enough to rubber stamp his decisions then just let him make those decisions and deal with bad decisions the way they did today!